Weblog

Friday, 12 June 2009

  • New Blog Site

    Dear Faithful Blog Followers,

    I bought a new computer back in March, because my old computer sadly passed on. Since then, I have not been able to get my pictures to copy onto my blog without first uploading them and then changing from my Mac to a PC and adding my photos that way. A bit time consuming and a little irritating. So, I have decided to say good-bye to my xanga blog site. However, that doesn't mean I stopped blogging you can still find me online at:

    http://lin-z-shea.blogspot.com/

    Just a small change of address. So come visit me at my new site. All are welcome!!

Wednesday, 27 May 2009

  • I don't understand

    I have lived in the Czech Republic for almost two years and there is still much I do not understand about the culture that I live in. I still don't understand the language, but there are other things as well that just don't make much since to me.

    I don't understand...
    ~ why there needs to be so many different shades of purple and red hair dye.
    ~ why people where flip-flops or no shoes at all while working out at the gym.
    ~ why shorts are a year-round clothing item; even when there is two inches of snow on the ground and the temperature is freezing.
    ~ why scrunchies are still in fashion here. (the scrunchy fad die in '93 in the States)
    ~ why the Czech produced car is named Skoda, which means "pity" in English.
    ~ why the draft from an open window could be harmful to your health.
    ~ why women walk around the streets of Prague (which are cobblestone) wearing three inch high heels.

Wednesday, 15 April 2009

  • Easter Czech Style

    The Easter traditions here in the Czech Republic are a bit different from those we celebrate in the States.  Instead of Sunday morning services and Easter egg hunts, Czechs celebrate Easter on the Monday after Easter.  During communism, it was prohibited to celebrate Easter for its true meaning, the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  So instead of completely doing away with the holiday it became more of a celebration of spring.

     

    Czech tradition on Easter Monday includes decorated eggs, a poem, and a stick of weaved twigs known as a “pomlazka.”  The boys go around town on Easter Monday with their pomlazka and whip the girls while reciting a poem.

     

    The poem goes something like this:

    “Give me a colored egg, if you won’t give me a colored egg, give me a white one and get your hen to lay another.”

     

    After their whipping, the girls thank the boys by giving them an egg.  The whipping with the pomlazka is believed to bring youth, beauty, health, and/or fertility according to pagan tradition.

     

    Though not much whipping occurs here in Prague, I was lucky enough this year to have been whipped myself.  While waiting for the metro and old man saw me and whipped me a few times in a friendly manner while talking to me in Czech.  I told him I didn’t speak Czech, but I knew what his stick was for.  He whipped me a few extra times and I told him I had no eggs, so he said to me, “never mind then.”

     

Thursday, 09 April 2009

  • Paris in the Spring

    For Easter Break, I had the opportunity to travel to Paris to watch a friend run in the Paris marathon and then spent a few days touring the amazing city of Paris. My friend ran on Sunday and then we toured Tuesday and Wednesday. She could barely walk for two days after her race, but we still managed to see the major sights of the city. I loved the Eiffel Tower and the Notre Dame Cathedral. The view from the top of the Eiffel tower is pretty amazing.

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    A view from the bottom of the Eiffel!!

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    Notre Dame is absolutely beautiful.

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    The Moulin Rough was pretty unimpressive.  I expected more.

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    The Paris Marathon at the beginning.  37,000 runners waiting for the GO! 

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    The Arc de Triumph; this is were the marathon began and ended.

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    The Eiffel tower sparking at night.

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Friday, 06 March 2009

  • A Sad Visit to the IT Doctor

    My computer was definitely in its geriatric stage of life.  He has been having a hard time lately keeping up with the amount of programs and downloads that are all in a days work for a healthy computer.  He has been slow to respond to my commands, he falls asleep in the middle of tasks, and he moans and groans with every task that I give him.  He was just old and achy!

    Well Thursday night this past week, he had had all he could take.  I think he must have had a stroke that put him into a coma.  I took him to our IT doc on Friday after school and received some very sad news.  My poor computer has past away taking everything on my hard drive with him into the the computer afterlife.